Design, fabrication and testing of contact-aided compliant cellular mechanisms with curved walls

Contact-Aided Compliant Cellular Mechanisms (C³M) are compliant cellular structures with integrated contact mechanisms. The focus of the paper is on the design, fabrication, and testing of C³M with curved walls for high strain applications. It is shown that global strains were increased by replacing straight walls with curved walls in the traditional honeycomb structure, while the addition of contact mechanisms increased cell performance via stress relief in some cases. Furthermore, curved walls are beneficial for fabrication at the meso-scale. The basic curved honeycomb cell geometry is defined by a set of variables. These variables were optimized using Matlab and finite element analysis to find the best non-contact and contact-aided curved cell geometries as well as the cell geometry that provides the greatest stress relief. Currently, the most effective contact-aided curved honeycomb cell can withstand global strains approximately 160% greater than the most effective contact-aided, non-curved cell. Four different designs were fabricated via the Lost Mold-Rapid Infiltration Forming (LM-RIF) process. An array of the contact-aided optimized curved cell was then mechanically tested using a custom designed test rig, and the results were found to have a higher modulus of elasticity and lower global strain than the predictions. Despite these discrepancies, a high-strength highstrain cellular structure was developed, for potential use in morphing aircraft applications.